On Monday, the Republican Party of Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana posed the request above on Facebook, asking for “horror stories” about the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). Surely this will end well.
Senate Republicans are currently trying to repeal Obamacare and replace it with Trumpcare, which would entail draconian cuts to Medicaid, 22 million Americans losing coverage according to the Congressional Budget Office (or “choosing” to have no safety net according to Paul Ryan), and a multi-billion dollar tax break for a minuscule group of people (which Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin described as “killing Peter to pay Paul“).
Considering only 12 percent of Americans supported the Senate’s current Trumpcare bill in a recent poll from USA TODAY and Suffolk University, you can probably guess what happened to the Indiana GOP’s Facebook request. A small handful of commenters lamented that their premiums had gone up, but the overwhelming majority of the over 6,600 comments were thanking Obama and sharing harrowing stories like these:
“As a healthcare practitioner I’ve been able to deliver care to people who hadn’t received healthcare in years thanks to the Affordable Care Act. They are better for it and our society is better for healthier citizens.”
“My fiancee contracted undetected viral pneumonia that led to a collapsed lung and emergency surgery. She was in recovery for over a week before discharge. Without Obamacare, she would have died. Instead, we are getting married later this month.”
“My sister finally has access to affordable quality care and treatment for her diabetes.”
“My father’s small business was able to insure its employees for the first time ever. #thanksObama”
“OMG, it was horrible — a very good friend couldn’t get insurance because she had a pre-existing condition, but then suddenly SHE COULD”
The horror. The horror.
Meanwhile some of the commenters were only there for the schadenfreude:
“Hey, Indiana GOP: somebody should tell you how the internet works. #boatymcboatface”
“Someone start screenshotting before it’s all deleted.”
Many of the commenters’ sentiments about Obamacare can be summed up by one person’s assertion that “the only horror in the story is that Republicans might take it away.”
(Via the Indianapolis Star and The Hill)